


every part of your aching soul

by magisterequitum



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Daemons, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 23:36:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magisterequitum/pseuds/magisterequitum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bryce slashes with needle sharp paws just as Elena lets the grenade fly from her hand. Both daemon and owner roar in pain from the cuts on their faces. The toes of her sneakers slip on the stairs, both her and Bryce running away, and neither of them stop to look back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	every part of your aching soul

He has the biggest daemon she's ever seen. Not even Mayor Lockwood's reptilian daemon had come close, and Tyler's mother's daemon's teeth failed to create fear the way those bared at her did now. She's massive in length, fur shiny and gleaming as she stalks up the stairs with a laziness that matches her owner as he steps in time with her. 

Elena's fingers tighten around the grenade in her hand. Her eyes don't know where to stay: on him or his daemon who never stops looking at her. She grits her teeth, grinding her molars as she swallows and lifts her chin, toes curling in her sneakers on the stairs. 

His daemon might be big, but Bryce has speed. 

Bryce slashes with needle sharp paws just as Elena lets the grenade fly from her hand. Both daemon and owner roar in pain from the cuts on their faces. The toes of her sneakers slip on the stairs, both her and Bryce running away, and neither of them stop to look back. 

 

 

 

Her bedroom's window seat had always been their spot. Big enough for her to curl her feet underneath her with Bryce's head against her hip. Now, the window glass is cold against her forehead where she leans against the pane. Her lip's a bitten mess, strips of skin peeled off by nervous unrelenting teeth. 

"Stop," Bryce nudges her knee with his head, rubbing his curved tooth against her jeans. "He's dead. We saw it." 

Elena's knuckles blanch white where she grips the fur around his neck. 

 

 

 

"I think it's time you and I had a little chat." 

Bryce is fast but not fast enough this time. 

Elena swallows the noise in her throat as she looks to where Elijah's daemon holds Bryce down by a paw the size of Elena's own head. Bryce bares his teeth, squirming one way and another, but it's futile against the bigger predator. 

She shifts her gaze to Elijah, glaring at him and thankful that Jeremy had gone downstairs so as not to hear them in her room. Her voice trembles, on the verge of being completely uneven. "Let him go." 

Two pairs of dark eyes stare at her. 

"Get off him." She bites out. 

The leopard does so without a look between owner and daemon, gracefully removing her paw to slink around behind her owner and sit by his side. Black eyes narrow and her tail sweeps behind her, brushing against his polished shoes. 

Elena kneels as Bryce rushes from the floor to her arms. She holds him to her, stroking down his side, before lifting her chin and standing again. 

They both grin in satisfaction when they wipe the smirks from their bedroom intruders' faces. "You don't know where he is, do you?" 

 

 

 

"I don't like it." Bonnie's mouth purses and her arms fold, her fingers cupping around her elbows. Her kestrel clacks his beak at Elena from where he's perched at the top of the bedpost. 

"We should get rid of him." Caroline's vehement sigh and jerk of her head sends her curls falling over her face. To add insult to the already interrogation, her daemon chitters at Bryce on the floor, bushy tail twitching. 

"We tried that already," Elena sighs, picking at the bed spread. "It didn't quite take." 

"I still don't like it." 

Caroline nods along with Bonnie as she repeats her statement. 

Elena frowns, and she knows what they mean, but she's got no other options at the moment. She doesn't want to think on what would happen to them if they did do something. The image is bad enough in her head. 

 

 

 

The dagger goes in smooth and quick, and then she's carrying the still weight of Elijah as death puts him on pause. She lets him fall to the front deck. Her attention's diverted elsewhere. She'd never seen a vampire's daemon go limp before. She'd never been around when Damon had been incapacitated and Stefan had no way of showing her. All she'd gotten was a, "it's complicated.". 

The great leopard is still beside her owner, mouth frozen in a growl. Looking no more than a stuffed beast, it's sick and horrible when Elena thinks on how she'd moved and snarled and slashed and been sleek muscles beneath glossy fur. No daemon is supposed to be like this here on her lake house's porch. 

Bryce backs away next to her, pressing against her legs. Elena feels the in and out of his ribs as he breathes. He's alive, as he should be. She can't help but reach down and pull him into her arms, holding him to her heart and breast like she used to as a kid. 

 

 

 

"Elena." 

It's the only time she's heard the daemon speak and she nearly drops the dagger in shock. The daemon's voice is a deep husk, pink tongue lolling between sharp teeth and eyes squinting in amusement. It's not uncommon for daemons to speak to one another, but to other humans something different; though Elijah's daemon has never followed normal rules. 

A cough of laughter leaves her throat as she bounds up the steps behind her owner who flees from the home's rejection of them being in it. 

Bryce's paws thump across the floor as he follows, his spotted fur disappearing around the corner while Elena scrambles to follow the other three. 

 

 

 

She feels the touch of his fingers barely grazing her arm simultaneously with his daemon brushing her head against Bryce. 

She hears the rumble in the other daemon's chest, a pleasing sound that she doesn't understand but Bryce answers. 

She smells the blood even though her skin is smooth and closed. 

She sees nothing but herself reflected in two sets of black-brown eyes that never waver from her face. 

She tastes the bitterness of the champagne on her tongue. 

 

 

 

Elena swings her front door open and the smile on her face is genuine, the corners of her mouth stretching upwards automatically. "Elijah." 

His daemon makes the deep sound in her chest from last night again, reaching out with one paw to touch Bryce in the doorway. 

His own smile splits his face as well, and it's with a tight pit in her chest that she reaches for her coat. 

 

 

 

The door swings open and it's him on the other side again. 

It's Bryce this time that makes the greeting noise, startling Elena with his pleasure that runs counter back to her. 

When he tells her that he'll leave, Klaus's body and his siblings in check, that he'll run, promises and promises heaped together from a soothing voice, the whine doesn't come from her. A small noise and she grabs Bryce's fur. 

She knows the deals she makes. 

Even if the deal tastes heavy in her mouth for some reason she doesn't know.

 

 

 

These days, Bryce is wild where she is contained. He'd grown wild before too, a snarling mess of fur and cutting teeth and sharp claws as her life had turned to horror every day. Now though, she's liberated and free, feeling only what she wants. Bryce runs wild at her feet and she lets him, carding her fingers through his fur in delight at the intimidation she can create with him. The pleasure of piercing Katherine's snake daemon in the diner had been far too satisfactory. 

The gazebo has peeling paint on the wood as she waits, stolen heels tapping on the floorboards. 

"Elena." 

She knows that raspy husk of a female voice. She turns and laughs, realizing then that she should have guessed who 'EM' was earlier. Bryce leaps to the bigger feline daemon, burying his teeth in the thick fur under her chin, purrs erupting from his throat. She watches them, faltering in her steps.

Elijah's fingers lock around her wrist, his hand hard on her hip.

She blinks, herself again, and smiles.


End file.
